Method of and apparatus for making can bodies



Dec. 28, 1943. F, KRUEGE 2,337,901

METHOD ,OF AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING CAN BODIES Original Filed March 13, 1940 4 Sheets-Sheet '1 STATION I I I I l I I I NOTCHING I I l I I I I F'i 1. g I I/VVE/VTOR flan/r ffrueyer 4 MWL LW Dec. 28, 1943. -KRUEGER 2,337,901

I METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING CAN BODIES Original Filed March 13, 1940 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTOF/VfKf.

Dec. 28, 1943 KRUEGER METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING CAN BODIES 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Original Filed March 15, 1940 IN YEN TOR Fran/r lfrueyer.

A 77'0/P/VfKS.

Dec. 28, 1943.

Original Filed March 13, 1940 4 SheetsShe et 4 AITOR/VfKj.

F. KRUEGER 2,337,901 v PPARATUS FOR MAKING CAN B Patented Dec. 28, 1943 METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING CAN BODIES Frank Krueger, Chicago, 111., assignor toE. Bliss Company, Brooklyn, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Original application March 13, 1940, Serial No. 323,715. Divided and this application April 22, 1941, Serial No. 389,779

2 Claims.

' This invention relates, as indicated, to a meth-- It has heretofore been proposed, as in Leavitt Patent No. 382,537, to feed can body blanks between a pair of coacting rollers and against a former which bends the blank downwardly and guides it into the space about a horn, the blank being carried forward until its leading edge. strikes against a shoulder formed on the horn.

This method was disadvantageous in a number of respects, first of which was the fact that it required the mounting of the horn in a heavy and cumbersome block, making access to the horn extremely difficult. Another disadvantage was that it resulted in the formation of a seam at the top of the formed blank, so that when solder was subsequently applied to the seam, such solder was likely to run over the can body. A third disadvantage was the lack of speed, and production capacity. I

Although in later developments in the can body making. art, the blank was so formedas to place the seam at the bottom, thereby obviating the aforesaid-disadvantage, the auxiliary devices required for formingthe blank were still such that the speed of forming was not sufiicient to meet present day demands.

A primary objectof the present invention, accordingly, is to provide a method of and apparatus forv making can bodies, whereby high speeds and maximum production are attained with a minimum amount of equipment.

Another object of the invention is to provide a method of the character described involving an especially advantageous sequence of steps or operations.

Another object of the invention is to provide novel apparatus or means for rolling a can body blank.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent during the course of thefollowing description.

In the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, and in which like numerals are employed to designate like part throughout the same,

Fig. 1 is a plan view of my improved body maker;

Fig. 2 is a section therethrough as indicated by the lines 2-2 of Fig. 1; v n

Fig. 3 is a section through Fig. 1' as indicated by the 1ines3--3 thereon;

Fig. 4 is a side view of a detail of the mechanism shown in Fig. 3;

Figs. 5 and- 6' are details of the mechanism in Fig. 3 showing the position of the parts during the edging operation;v

Fig. 7 is a perspective of a can body with the seam edge; V

Fig. 8 is a section through the mechanism at the bumping station; I

Figs. 9 and 10 show the positions of the respective parts of Fig. 8' during the locking operation;

Fig. 11 shows the position of the same parts immediately prior to the bumping operation Fig. 11a is a fragmentary View, similar to Fig; 11, but showing the completion of the bumping operation; and a Fig. 12 is a cross-sectional View of a modified form of magnetic horn. v

The apparatus, as shown, comprises a feed station A, a notching'station B, a rolling station C, and edging station I) and abumping station E.

The can body blank I is fed to thenotching station B from a pile of such blanks located at the feed stationA, as by means-of a sheet feeder, not shown, but which may, for example, be' a sheet feeding mechanism, such as disclosed in my copending application, Serial No. 264,521, filed March 28, 1939. At the notching station, one of the seam edges 2 of the can is slitted at points spaced somewhat from the ends of such edge, as indicated by reference numeral 3' and corner portions are blanked out at the ends of the other seam edge 4 of the blank, as indicated by reference numeral fi. includes top and bottom marginal portions Band 1, which are utilized in forming the can end fianges to which the ends of the can are adapted to be secured. I v

The slitted andnotched blank I' then proceeds to the rolling station C,.consisting of mechanism which is illustrated-more or less diagrammatically in Fig. 2, whereby the can is curvedinto cylindrical forms This mechanism comprises'a-mag netic horn 8 having longitudinally extendingrecesses 9. therein at diametrically opposed points in which feed fingers it are mounted for reciprocatory movement. The outer surfaces l l of these fingers formin effect a continuation of the outer surface l2 of the horn. U

In spaced relation to the horn, and curved, to

conform with the outer surface ll'ofthe latter,

tion of this arbor being extended to: provide a;-

The resulting blank then The mechanism further includes a vertically,

reciprocable blank stop l9a.

As the blank I is received on the arbor [3, it is fed forwardly by the belt l5 and, at the same tim curved to conform with they arbor, With the blank stop l9a in lowered position, 'theblank, moving at a high speed, envelops the horn 8, and its motion ceases when the stop is raised into contact with the horn, as indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 2, and the edge 4 of-theblankengages said stop. The blank is of such size that when the movement of the blank is arrested by,

the stop, the rear edge 2 of the blank lies adjacent the side of the top which is oPDOsite-thatengaged by the edge 4. The blank, which has now been rolled to cylindrical form, with its edges '2 and 4 spaced from each'other, is now ready for the edging or flanging operation. "For this pur-' pose, it is moved by flanges (not shown) feed fingers It! to the edging station D. 7

At the edging station, theloperationsjsh'own in Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are performed. Mechanism for the edging operations comprises a pair of vertically-reciprocating bars l9 and and formers or edgers 2| and 22. The bars [9 and 20 reciprocate in a slot 23 in the horn '8 and are movable in synchronized relation to eachother, so that as one bar is being raised, the other is being lowered. Each of the bars is provided with a recess'24 in its outer side, the upper end of which in one bar and the lower end of which in the'other bar t'eron the minates in a shoulder or projection 25, the function of which will be presently described; At the opposite end of each recess is a wall 26, the function of which will also be described. The former 2| is provided with a beveled face 21' against which the flange which'fonns one portion of' the can seam is bent, and theformer22 is provided with a beveled face 28 against which the flange which forms the other portion ofthe'can seam is bent.

As the cylindrical can blank reaches'a position" adjacent the aforesaid bars and formers, the bar I9 is lowered, with the result that the shoulder 25 bends a portion of the blank adjacent the edge 4 outwardly, forming a flange 29. At the same time, the bar'20 israised, with the result that the shoulder 25 on this bar bends a portion of'the blank adjacent the edge 2 inwardly, forming'a' flange 30. The position'of the bars l9 and'20 just prior to the aforesaid flanging operation is shown in Fig. 3, and the position thereof at the conclusion of such operations is shown in Fig.5.

The bar l9 is'then moved upwardly, causing the wall 26 of the recess 24 to bend the flange 29 outwardly and into'engagement with the face- 21 of the former 2|, as indicated in dotted lines to the bump g stat on E, at w ch t e a ous 75.

operations shown in Figs. 8, 9, 10, 11 and 11a are performed. At this station, the horn consists of relatively movable parts 8a and 8b, which are initially in the position shown in Fig. 8, that is to say, they are sufliciently close to each other as to leave spaces a and b between the horn parts and the blank I. Disposed about the horn are semi-cylindrical flange interlocking members 3! r and 32 which are pivoted together at their upper ends, as at 3B, and are respectively movable about said pivot, and towards and away from the horn by means of levers 33 and 34 actuated in synchronism by suitable mechanism, not shown. The member 3| is provided at its lower end with a flange engaging tool 35, and the member 32 is provided with a similar tool 36.

5 After the blank l reaches the position shown 'in Fig. 8, the member 3| is moved inwardly toward the horn to the position shown in Fig. 9, causing the tool 35 to engage the flange 29 of the can blank and moving the latter to the position shown in this figure. The member 32 is then moved inwardly toward the horn, causing the tool to move the flange 39 of the can blank to the position shown in Fig. 10, in which position it is interengaged with the flange 29.

The members 3! and 32 are then moved apart as shown in Fig. 11, and at the same time, the horn parts 8a and 8b are moved apart sufliciently to cause a full interlocking of the flanges 29 and blank, forming a lock seam of the character 11- lustrated in Fig, 11, and forcing the seam inwardly of the peripheral surface of the can body, as shown in Fig. 11a, the central portion of the horn being relieved as at 39 for accommodating the body seam.

The body blanks coming from the notching station are fed to the horn in the rolling station at a high rate of speed in order to obtain the production desired. This means that the blankafter being fed to the horn must be rapidly stopped and then shifted axially of the horn for further body forming operations. This abrupt change in the direction involves bringing the blank to rest and I have provideda modified form of horn 8, as shown in Fig. 12, to attain this object. In this form of horn a series of coils 49 are placed within circumferentially spaced recesses in the horn periphery. The can blank is made of sheet steel and hence is susceptible to the influence of the magnetic field thus set up. Hence when the forward motion of the blank of the horn is terminated the inertia is,

precedes, rather than follows, the edging opera-' tion, and that the means for rolling the blank and for causing an interengagement and interlocking of the flanges are, so far as I am aware, scope of the subjoined claims.

Referring again to Fig. 2, it will benoted that considerable speed is attained by the use of an endless belt to feed the blanks to the horn 8, and that the belt is also utilized to bend the blank as it leaves the lower beveled edge of the arbor so that the blank conforms with the surface of the horn. This dual function of the belt is believed to be entirely novel. It may also be noted that the seam is formed at the bottom, so that in the subsequent seam soldering operations, excess solder Will not run over the can body.

It is to be understood that the form of my invention herewith shown and described, is to be taken as a preferred example of the same, and that various changes in the shape, size and arrangement of parts may be resorted to, without departing from the spirit of my invention, or the scope of the subjoined claims.

This application is a division of my copending application Serial No. 323,715, filed March 13, 1940, now Patent No. 2,309,963, issued Feb. 2, 1943.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. A method of making can bodies from flat rectangular blanks comprising notching the blanks, bending the notched blanks to cylindrical form and rotating them about a forming axis extending concentrically through the formed blanks, and subjecting the rotating cylindrical blanks to the flux of a stationary magnetic field emanating from within the confines of the blanks to arrest the rotational movement of the blanks and to confine the blanks about the forming axls.

2. In an apparatus for making can bodies comprising means defining a notching station, a rolling station, an edging station, and a bumping station, a cylindrical horn in said rolling station and extending from there through the edging station to the bumping station, means for feeding the blanks peripherally around the horn, said horn having recesses in the peripheral surface thereof and blank magnetizing means disposed in said recesses for generating a magnetic flux along said magnetizing means to retard the peripheral movement of the blanks around the horn and to confine the blanks about thehorn, and means for feeding the blanks along said horn from station to station.

FRANK KRUEGER. 

